Defection.

This is coolbert:

WARNING: Independent Barents Observer is a "flagged" Internet media website in the Russian Federation. Meaning that Russian citizens, nationals and perhaps foreign residents residing in Russia are strongly discouraged if not banned from viewing the "Barents" website.  

FSB = Russian internal counter intelligence service to include border guards.

Deserter / defector from the Wagner PMC Grove has crossed the border from Russia into Norway in very dramatic fashion and will probably be giving sanctuary.

"Shots were fired by FSB, Wagner defector escaping to Norway is willing to testify"

"FSB border guards opened fire after the man running the polar night in the snow across the Pasvik River from Russia to Norway. The man, allegedly a defector from the Wagner mercenary group, says he is willing to testify against war criminal [alleged] Yevgeny Prigozhin."

From thebarentsobserver the story by Thomas Nilsen and Georgy Chentemirov January 15, 2023.

"It was shortly before 2 am the night before Friday a Russian citizen managed to get through the barbed wire fence not far from the town of Nikel and run over the Pasvik River to safety in Norway."

See the You Tube video courtesy https://gulagu.net/ an organization I didn't know even existed.

"Another evacuation completed successfully. More precisely, here we are not even talking about evacuation, but about a [defector / deserter] illegally crossing the border and escaping from Russia under the barking of watchdogs and shots in the back from the border service of the FSB."

To see subtitles of your own choosing [i.e. English] go to and enter: settings / subtitles / Russian auto-generated / auto / translate / scroll to English and enter.

"The escape was dramatic, the man tells via phone from Oslo in a live recording posted on the Gulagu.net’s YouTube channel."

"He was quickly brought to Oslo because of extreme security considerations in the Kirkenes area."

And I might very well suspect this deserter / defector will be of great interest to both Norwegian and NATO intelligence. His knowledge of Wagner PMC and the role of Wagner in the Ukraine conflict will be vital if not unique.

Norway and NATO also BEWARE the false defector! A person intentionally defecting sent over to the other side to sow dissension and spread disinformation. This type of procedure was not commonly used by the Soviet intelligence services during the Cold War but as I understand it was not so uncommon either. Very careful interrogation will be required to determine man determine whether this man is a true or false defector.

coolbert.